A storeroom in the Seattle freezer has created a race against the clock to make sure deaths from the rapidly depleted Modern COVID-19 vaccine do not go to waste.
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A freezer in Kaiser Permanente Washington, containing about 1,600 first doses of the vaccine, was operating at about 9 p.m., according to The Seattle Times.
Hundreds of health workers and volunteers immediately took action to ensure no dose was lost, meaning all doses had to be administered by 5:30 a.m. Friday.
“I got a call tonight at 9am and heard that a freezer had gone down from Kaiser and can we help vaccinate people before the doses expire at 5:30 in the morning?” Jenny Brackett, an assistant administrator at the University of Washington Medical Center, tells The times.
The Swedish Medical Center and the UW Medical Center split the doses and posted each on social media and reached out to local news stations to include the message in their broadcasts.
URGENT: We have 588 DOSE 1 MODERNA appointments available 28 January 23:00 to 29 January 02:00 Click on link to book. Click SHOW MORE for additional slots until 2am and select MORE. Must be Phase 1a or Phase 1B / Tier 1.. Https://t.co/gtVkBKb9va pic.twitter.com/w3bKmQqbHk
– Swedish (@Swedish) 29 January 2021
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Approximately 1,600 doses of the vaccine were administered overnight
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FOLLOWING
According to the chief operating officer of the Swedish Medical Center, Kevin Brooks, the available appointments in his hospital were filled within 35 to 40 minutes, according to local NBC subsidiary King 5 News.
“We called from a partner hospital that they have a refrigerator function and that they need to vaccinate 880 people,” Brooks told the news station. “I pulled our team together, our vaccine team at Swedish, and we visited Microsoft Teams and devised a plan, and 30 minutes later we arrived on the scene.”
Healthcare officials told local news agencies that they were trying to vaccinate as many priority patients as possible, including the elderly and emergency workers, but the main goal was to make sure no doses were wasted.
“We are doing our best to stay within the CDC and the governor’s guidelines on prioritization. At the same time, we want to make sure not a single drop of the vaccine is lost,” Brooks told King 5 News.
She woke up to Tyson Greer, 77, every day around 1 a.m. or 3 a.m. to search online for an open vaccination. The Seattle Times.
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She happened to see the call and went to the UW Medical Center – North West to finally receive her first dose.
“Heaven,” Greer said Seattle Times reporter while waiting for vaccination.
Vaccines were administered after three hours am. The Seattle Times report.
It was not clear what caused the freezer, but fortunately all the doses could be administered before it expired.
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